


Case 15: Duty Calls

by Haedonrocks



Series: Criminal Case: The Mystery Skulls [15]
Category: Criminal Case (Video Game), Mystery Skulls Animated
Genre: F/M, murder at the mall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-17 10:22:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28847481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haedonrocks/pseuds/Haedonrocks
Summary: A security guard falls to his death at the mall. Cera and Mike are on the case to find out who murdered and wanted him dead. They also get to meet Arthur's younger brother as a suspect.
Series: Criminal Case: The Mystery Skulls [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1684867





	1. Chapter 1

Cera Minnie: You know, this day feels like that time I spent all summer at the beach in Florida. It was really hot. Do you think it’s hot Mike?  
Mike Weld: Oh yeah, I’m burning like firewood here. It’s a shame that the ice cream place on the boardwalk is closed today.  
Cera Minnie: Every time I think about that place, all I can see is that poor woman frozen to death from one of our cases.  
Lewis Pepper: How about you two head to the mall for a break? I heard there’s a sale on clothes for both school and work.  
Cera Minnie: Didn’t you want us to look into that cult that summons spirits?  
Lewis Pepper: Later Cera, we all need a break. Plus, we still need to find a new lead. Maybe you can find something strange at the mall.  
Mike Weld: Well, it won’t hurt to check then. Let’s go!

At the mall:  
Mike Weld: Ahh, this is much better than the HQ. The air in here is so cool.  
Cera Minnie: Yeah and the snacks here are so good. This corndog tastes like those ones I get from a carnival. Hey, a fountain let’s make a wish.  
Mike Weld: Sorry, I don’t have a penny. Well, I don’t have any coins for the matter.  
Cera Minnie: I have one. Hmmm, I wish we weren’t bored today.  
(Flips the coin and someone falls from the window ceiling)  
Stranger: Ahhhh!  
Cera Minnie: Oh my god! That man just fell from the ceiling!  
Mike Weld: It’s a three story building so there’s no way he could have survived that.  
Cera Minnie: Let’s go check on him then.

At the fountain, Cera and Mike find a dead body who’s in the fountain with the back of his head bleeding. They also found a locked phone.  
Cera Minnie: I don’t think there’s no need for medics. This man died from impact.  
Mike Weld: Poor guy, why was he up there in the first place?  
Cera Minnie: I don’t know, but look at that badge on his chest, he must be a security guard here. Do you think this was an accident?  
Tracey Potts: Hey! I need everyone to stay back, this is a murder crime scene.  
Cera Minnie: Murder crime scene? We don’t know that for certain miss….  
Tracey Potts: Tracy Potts, Julius Bush’s partner. I can’t believe that someone would murder him.  
Cera Minnie: If you know the victim, then I need to speak to you. Mike, can you take the body to the morgue and hack that phone and see who it belongs to?  
Mike Weld: Sure thing Cera. I’ll be done quickly. 

Mike takes the body to the morgue and unlocks the phone.  
Mike Weld: Alright, now that the phone is unlocked Arthur should be able to see who this belongs to.

Mike sends the phone to the lab and Cera talks to Tracey Potts.  
Tracey Potts: I can’t believe that Julius is dead. How could this happen?  
Cera Minnie: That’s what we are trying to find out. How do you know it’s a murder?  
Tracey Potts: Well Julius wasn’t suicidal, he’s always had a will to live. It wasn’t accidental because he wouldn’t be stupid enough to be up there in the first place. Or as I kept telling him.  
Cera Minnie: So how exactly did you know the victim well?  
Tracey Potts: Like I said, we were partners in crime. We go around this mall together and bust some criminals who try to shoplift. Without us, this place could end up in the danger zone.  
Cera Minnie: And what about your relationship between you and Julius?  
Tracey Potts: I liked the guy. He was tough, brave, and yet dumb. Kept his military style straight when he was talking to those criminals.  
Cera Minnie: Well then, thank you for that. By the way, how could Julius get up there to that glass ceiling?  
Tracey Potts: Well there’s a staircase that leads you to the rooftop. It’s for fire emergencies. Julius goes there as his break from his job, not sure why.  
Cera Minnie: Thank you and don’t go anywhere.

At the rooftop, Cera finds a broken taser and a pile of trash.  
Cera Minnie: Dang, this place is trashed. But it also looks like there’s been some struggle here. Like this broken taser, I should fix this up. And this pile of trash seems suspicious to me, I should check and see if there’s anything good inside. 

Cera fixes the broken taser.  
Cera Minnie: Good, this taser is perfectly fixed. David can find out more about this taser. 

Cera sends the taser to David and goes through the pile of trash to find a note.  
Cera Minnie: It’s a written note for the victim. Dear Mr. Bush, I swear that I’ll make it up for you. Dinner tonight at 8?” It seems like someone wanted to apologize to the victim for something and wanted to bring him for dinner. It doesn’t have a name on here so I have to analyze the handwriting to see who wrote it.

Cera analyzes the handwriting.  
Cera Minnie: So the handwriting that came from the note belongs to a certain Lila Dean. According to the database, she’s a regular shopper here at this mall. Her credit cards are all burned up. I suppose she could explain the apology note she gave to the victim. 

Cera talks to Lilia Dean.  
Cera Minnie: Excuse me Miss Dean, can I have a word with you?  
Lila Dean: Is it about that poor guy who fell in that fountain? I was there when it happened. The poor guy.  
Cera Minnie: Funny you should mention that the guy who fell in that fountain was Julius Bush. You sent him an apology letter and wanted to take him out for dinner at eight.  
Lila Dean: That was Julius!? I didn’t know! No wonder why he wouldn’t answer his phone about the incident!  
Cera Minnie: All I want is to know what you were apologizing to him for.  
Lila Dean: Oh well I accidently spilled my latte on his suit and we were having a conversation about how expensive it was. So I decided to write him that letter to not only take him to dinner, but to pay for that suit.  
Cera Minnie: Oh yeah, you’ll pay for it, since you like to burn up your credit cards.  
Lila Dean: It’s a hobby I enjoy. I work at the stock markets with a nice paycheck.  
Cera Minnie: I see, well just don’t go anywhere if I need to talk to you again.

At the lab.  
Arthur Kingsmen: Where exactly did you get this phone from Mike?  
Mike Weld: At the fountain where Julius was killed at, why? Did you find out who it belongs to?  
Arthur Kingsmen: Well it only took me a second to find out who it belongs to. I can recognize the background screen from a mile away. It’s my brother’s phone.  
Mike Weld: You have a brother?  
Arthur Kingsmen: Yeah, Jason Kingsmen. My sixteen year old brother who can’t stop leaving his stuff. It’s like he wanted it to be stolen.  
Mike Weld: Well, maybe there’s a reason why he left that phone there. I’ll go talk to him.

Mike talks to Jason Kingsmen.  
Mike Weld: So you must be Jason Kingsmen, Arthur’s younger brother.  
Jason Kingsmen: Yeah that’s me. Is Arthur worried about me?  
Mike Weld: Well, we found your phone near the fountain, unprotected. Why is that?  
Jason Kingsmen: Oh crap! I thought I had it the whole time! It must have slipped out my pocket when I was walking around. Of course, I also heard about that poor guy who fell from that pond. The word spreads quickly.  
Mike Weld: Were you there when that happened?  
Jason Kingsmen: No, I was at the food court drinking a smoothie. It’s part of my diet. You know, I’ve always wanted to join your team. Being a detective and such.  
Mike Weld: Umm, you might have to talk to Arthur about that. For now, just be safe for cautious reasons.

At the lab.  
Mike Weld: Hey David, have you ever been tased before?  
David Cole: Oh yeah, but not in the way you're thinking about it. I was working on a project for a taser with a higher velocity, but it backfired on me. I can still feel the shocks in my chest. But as for this taser, the killer must have smashed it to pieces before or after he was killed. Julius could have used it in self-defence but unfortunately there is evidence that it wasn’t used recently.  
Mike Weld: He never got the chance. If he had used it sooner, he could have been alive at the moment.  
David Cole: Yeah. I also found something on the barrel of the taser. I sent the sample to Samantha and she said that it was a combination of carboxymethylcellulose, denatured alcohol, and polyvinylpyrrolidone.  
Mike Weld: Umm, I’m not big on science here David, but what do they make?  
David Cole: I didn’t know at first until Sammy confirmed that it was hair spray that was on the taser. I checked in with Danny and he found no traces of hair spray on the victim’s hair.  
Mike: So it’s the killer who uses hair spray. I should write this down.

At the morgue.  
Danny Lins: I’m sorry that you and Mike had to witness a death in front of you.  
Cera Minnie: Well I did make a wish that I wasn’t bored so I kinda got what I needed. So how did he die?  
Danny Lins: Our victim here was dead as soon his head hitted the edge of the concrete of the fountain. The side of his skull was fractured, blunt force trauma, from the fall, or as I call it defenestration since he went through the glass ceiling. Of course, I also found something interesting in his suit. I found traces, and smell, of smoothie juice that was quite a waste of a refreshment. More is that I didn’t find any in his stomach and in which this looks pretty new.  
Cera Minnie: So someone threw a smoothie at him before his death. That means the killer drinks smoothies then. Thank you Danny, this will be a great help.

At the HQ.  
Mike Weld: Well, we’ve done a lot of work here and still not done. Let’s go over what we got. Three suspects in which two know the victim well.  
Cera Minnie: I wouldn’t consider Jason Kingsmen as a suspect, but his phone was at the crime scene. On the other hand, he said that he drinks smoothies like the killer does. But as for the other two: Tracey Potts, the victim’s partner in crime, said that they worked together very well and Lila Dean made an apology letter to him for spilling latte on his suit.  
Mike Weld: We do know that the killer drinks smoothies and uses hair spray as they pushed him to his death. We just need to find a new path to go to.  
Lewis Pepper: And we do. Someone just broke into the security office!


	2. Chapter 2

Cera Minnie: Well this was someway to start our day off. A security guard falls from the glass ceiling and dies in the fountain. We only have some suspects and the fact that the killer drinks smoothies and uses hair spray. We still need a new lead to go.  
Lewis Pepper: And I have one for you, someone broke into the security room in the mall. My guess is that the killer is making sure that you guys don’t catch them soon.  
Mike Weld: We need to go to the security room now before they get away!

At the security room:  
Mike Weld: Crap, we are too late. This place has been ransacked.   
Cera Minnie: The killer must have known that we are up to them. They deleted the security camera from the rooftop.   
Mike Weld: They just made our work a lot harder. Let’s see if the killer left anything here.

In the security room, Cera and Mike find a MP3 player, a torn get well card, and drawer of files.  
Cera Minnie: Man that was a long time to find these things. It looks like we have an MP3 player here, but it’s locked though. Maybe unlocking it should help us find out if this belongs to anyone.   
Mike Weld: We also have a card that’s been torn up into pieces. I should tape this and find out what it’s about.   
Cera Minnie: While you do that, I’m going to search through this drawer of files and see if there is anything good for our case. Let’s get to work.

They unlock the MP3 Player.  
Mike Weld: Nice, this MP3 player has a lot of songs on it. Most of them are rock music.   
Cera Minnie: Hmm, it doesn’t have a name on here. Maybe Arthur can check if there are any fingerprints on it.

They send the MP3 Player to Arthur and they go through the drawer to find a file.  
Cera Minnie: Here’s a file. It’s about a mexican restaurant that Julius spends his time at. We don’t have time to read all of this so we should take this over to Laurel and see if she can see any highlights to this.

They send the file to Laurel and fix the card.   
Mike Weld: Hey, it’s a thank you card from the victim from a previous shoplifting in a store called Odom’s Crystals and Oils.   
Cera Minnie: I know that place. That store sells spiritual items for meditation and relaxation to keep the mind calm. I’ve been there once.   
Mike Weld: Huh, I didn’t know you were a meditator. Anyway, the owner of the store is Roxy Odom. Maybe she can shed some light onto this thank you card. 

Cera and Mike talk to Roxy Odom.  
Roxy Odom: Welcome to my store, are you here to find the path of enlightenment ahead of you?  
Cera Minnie: Well, I’ve been trying that out. Unfortunately I think a few more of those crystals and candles should do the trick.  
Mike Weld: The case, Cera.   
Cera Minne: Right. We are here because you send a thank you card to Julius Bush, he was murdered a few hours ago.  
Roxy Odom: He’s dead!? That’s impossible, I just saw him here this right as my store opened! But I did give him that thank you card for that horrible shoplifting that happened here.  
Mike Weld: Care to explain what happened?  
Roxy Odom: Well as I was putting on some hair spray from the counter, some stranger decided to put some of my necklaces inside his pocket. I didn’t see the guy do that but Julius knew what was going on. He confronted the guy and handed me back the necklaces he stole and arrested him. If it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t have known so I made that thank you card for his service in this mall.   
Mike Weld: Thank you for your cooperation Miss Odom. We’ll capture whoever killed Julius.   
Roxy Odom: Please do. His death cannot be in vain.

At Laurel’s office.  
Laurel Inti: I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Laurel Inti, Vivi’s best friend and lawyer.  
Mike Weld: Nice to meet you Laurel, I’m Mike Weld and this is my partner Cera Minnie.  
Cera Minnie: Nice to meet you too Laurel. What do you think about that restaurant?  
Laurel Inti: Our victim was describing the mexican restaurant, Locos Tacos as a nice place to eat for lunch. He even kept the receipts for all the days he’s been to that restaurant.   
Mike Weld: So Julius Bush is a regular at that place?  
Laurel Inti: Yep, what’s more is that he has a nice relationship with the owner, Nico Ellson.   
Cera Minnie: Hmm, if Mr. Ellson knows the victim well, then talking to him should be key evidence into our case. 

Cera and Mike talk to Nico Ellson.  
Cera Minnie: Nico Ellson? We are here about the murder of Julius Bush. He’s a regular at your restaurant.   
Nico Ellson: Yes, I’ve heard about his death. It’s very tragic to say. But he was more than a regular to me, a friend mostly.  
Mike Weld: A friend? How so?  
Nico Ellson: As you can see, Julius loves my restaurant so much that he wants to help me advertise it for more customers on posters and signs in the mall. Helps out with the competition going on. Anyway, I’ve been giving him discounts on his meals since then.  
Mike Weld: Sounds like some true friendship there.   
Nico Ellson: It was. And now he’s dead, I’m left alone to drink my smoothie and talk to myself.

At the lab.  
Arthur Kingsmen: So did Jason give you any reason why he left his phone?  
Mike Weld: I can tell you that he wasn’t there to witness the murder. He just didn’t know his phone wasn’t in pocket as he was walking.  
Arthur Kingsmen: Hopefully that’s the case. Anyway, I took a look at the MP3 Player you sent me and I’ll tell you that it’s the killer’s.  
Cera Minnie: How can you tell?  
Arthur Kingsmen: Easy, I found traces of both hair spray and smoothie on the device, the same things your killer has. And knowing that this was in the security room at the time of the murder, it’s circumstantual that it belongs to them. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any fingerprints on the music player, but all of the songs that are on here are rock and only rock.  
Mike Weld: So our killer listens to rock music. Thank you Arthur, that’ll narrow down our suspect list. Speaking of, we should head back to the fountain to make sure that we aren’t missing anything.

At the fountain, Mike and Cera find a purse and a hate letter.  
Cera Minnie: It’s a good thing we closed this off so no one can mess up our crime scene.   
Mike Weld: We also have some other clues that can help us. This purse wasn’t here the first time we searched this place. We should search inside it and see who it belongs to.   
Cera Minnie: I also found this note by the fountain. It’s a hate note for our victim. It reads, Finally the day has come. Julius got what he deserved. Holy moly, this person is happy that Julius is dead!  
Mike Weld: Then let’s dust the paper for fingerprints and hand them to Arthur. We may have wasted some hours, but this killer won’t get away.

They dusted the paper for fingerprints.   
Cera Minnie: Alright, let’s give this to Arthur and see if he can find out who wrote the note.

They send the note to Arthur and search through the purse to find a file labeled Lila Dean.  
Mike Weld: Hey, this file belongs to Lila Dean, like the ones we found in the security office.   
Cera Minnie: Why would there be a file for her. Let’s read it.  
Mike Weld: Hmm, it says here that she was caught red handed for stealing an expensive dress in Baltimore’s. Get this, the person who caught her was our victim, Julius Bush.   
Cera Minnie: It seems like the two had some trouble with each other than how Lila described it and the fact that she was at the security room at the time after the murder. Let’s go talk to her again.

Cera Minnie: Lila Dean, we know about your criminal record. Did you really have to steal a dress if you were burning money from your cards?  
Lila Dean: How did you know!? I stole that file from- (Silence)  
Mike Weld: So you admit that you stole the file from the security room. It’s funny to say that since the killer was in that same room.  
Lila Dean: I did go into the security room, but it was already ransacked by the time I got there. I was just lucky to get the file before Julius took it to the police. I could have lost my job because of that.  
Cera Minnie: Then it’s time to get the full truth of your relationship with Julius. What really happened?  
Lila Dean: As you may know. My cards declined from how much I spent my money and I was going to pay them back. Then I saw this dress at that shop after I bought my smoothies which were amazing and stylish. So I decided to sneak it out of the store and made sure that I could get away with it.   
Mike Weld: But Julius caught you.  
Lila Dean: He saw the whole thing and got me in trouble. He told me that he was going to report this to the police and put it on my criminal record. I begged him not to and will pay for the dress and take him out for dinner as an apology. I even started to listen to rock music for him.  
Mike Weld: That explains the note for the victim. But you still have the charges for not only shoplifting, but trespassing too. We could also add murder on the charges if we find out that you killed him.

At the lab.  
Arthur Kingsmen: Man, you people really give me a lot of work to do.  
Cera Minnie: Well Vivi and Lewis are busy with the cult while Samantha and Mystery are on a walk.  
Arthur Kingsmen: I guess that’s true, but they better take over for me next time. Moving on, I analyzed the fingerprints on the note you sent to me. I couldn’t help but read it too. This person really hates the victim’s guts.  
Mike Weld: I mean, we can tell.  
Arthur Kingsmen: So to make this bluntly for you, it was his partner Tracey Potts who wrote the letter.  
Cera Minnie: Really? But she said that she liked him. We need to ask why she lied to us.

Tracey Potts; Ah, detectives. Did you find the killer yet? I’ve been slurping smoothies all day and listening to rock music to keep me focused.   
Cera Minnie: Not yet, but can you explain to us why you lied about your friendship with Julius? We know that you put the letter on the fountain, the one where it reads that you are happy that he’s dead.  
Tracey Potts: Well I wanted people to read it, not find out that it belonged to me.   
Mike Weld: It doesn’t add up. We thought that you liked Julius, you said so yourself.  
Tracey Potts: And you were right about me lying. I hated his guts from the day we were assigned together. He was nothing but a hothead who thought that he should be the leader because he was a man. He was a sexist! I should have been the one in charge and made things a lot more easier for the both of us! Of course now that he’s dead, my partner better be a lot nicer than that jerk.  
Mike Weld: Sounds like you went through a terrible life. But it also sounds like a great motive for murder.  
Tracey Potts: You must be drunk to assume I murder that lowlife. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to find some hairspray. Hopefully that mexican restaurant owner has some I can borrow.

At the fountain.  
Cera Minnie: This isn’t going as great as I thought. It seems like we got a few more problems ahead of us.  
Mike Weld: Starting with Tracey Potts and Lila Dean who both had motive for the victim. Tracey hated him for being a ruthless leader and a sexist while Lila tried to bribe her way out of a criminal record she got from shoplifting a dress.   
Cera Minnie: We also got two owners. Nico Ellson, the owner of Locos Tacos who says that Julius was a friend to him and helped each other out and Roxy Odom from Odom’s Crystals and Oils said that Julius saved her store from a shoplifter and wrote a thank you card for him.   
Mike Weld: At least we know that the killer listens to rock music and we’ve been listening very well with their words. All we need is to-  
Nico Ellson: There you are! You got to help me!  
Mike Weld: Mr. Ellson, what’s going on?  
Angry mob: There he is! He tried to poison us!


	3. Chapter 3

Cera Minnie: So it looks like our victim had some enemies on his side than we were expecting. It’s a good thing that our killer is making mistakes that could help us catch them.  
Nico Ellson: Detectives! You have to help me, they are trying to kill me!  
Mike Weld: Who’s trying to kill you?  
Angry Mob: There he is, get him!  
Mike Weld; Hey! Get back, what is your deal!?  
Angry Mob: He tried to poison us! We were having digestion problems from his food!   
Nico Ellson: They're called tacos and burritos for a reason people! Why would I want to try to poison my own customers!?  
Cera Minnie: I’m not sure how this is relevant to our case, but everyone is wasting our time here. There’s a killer on the loose and we need to get them. So leave before you get arrested.  
(The angry mob leaves)  
Nico Ellson: Oh thank you, I thought they were going to obliterate me. I kept telling those people that I’m not poisoning anyone, why won’t they believe that?  
Mike Weld: I’m not sure, but just stay at your restaurant and keep it closed so no one will buy your food. I also have a feeling that we should check the security office again and see if we missed anything.

At the security office, Mike and Cera find a broken video tape, some roses, and a burrito in a bag.  
Cera Minnie: Still trashed as always, but we did find some other things. These roses look like a gift for someone, there’s a card on it but it’s faded. I should dust it to see what it says.  
Mike Weld: While you are at it, I got to fix up this broken tape. It looks important. And why is there a burrito in a plastic bag with Locos Tacos labeled on it? There’s some red liquid outside of the bag. I could collect a sample and send it to Samantha. We still have a lot of work and little time, let’s not waste anymore and catch this killer. 

Mike fixes the video tape.  
Mike Weld: Good, now Arthur would like to take a look at this and see why this was broken.

Mike sends the tape to the lab and gets a sample of the red liquid.  
Mike Weld: Samantha should tell us what this is, let’s bring it to her.

Mike sends the sample and the bag to Samantha while Cera dusts the card.  
Cera Minnie: Huh, the flowers are from the victim, his name is at the bottom. It reads, For my lovely girlfriend Roxy, love Julius. Wait a minute, Roxy Odom? I didn’t know that their relationship was more than that.   
Mike Welds: Then let’s ask why she forgot to mention why they were dating.

Roxy Odom: You’re back. I was just about to take a break and listen to my rock music.   
Cera Minnie: You’re break can wait. It seems like you forgot to tell us that you were dating the victim, Julius Bush.   
Roxy Odom: So you found out? (Sighs.) Fine, me and Julius were dating. And it was an amazing one too. I didn’t tell you that because it was supposed to be a secret, he has a wife.  
Cera Minnie: He does!? How come we haven’t interviewed her yet?  
Roxy Odom: Because she’s out of state on vacation. We were dating about six months and haven’t had problems since. We even went on dates, drinking smoothies and walking at the park at night. It soothes me very much.   
Mike Weld: The fact that you hid that from us makes you very suspicious.   
Roxy Odom: I didn’t kill Julius, I loved him. Honest!  
Cera Minnie: We’ll be the ones to find out.

At the lab.  
Arthur Kingsmen: This is unacceptable! Terrible!   
Cera Minnie: Arthur, what’s wrong?   
Arthur Kingsmen: This video, that’s what’s wrong! I was looking over for it to see if I could spot your victim, which I did, and that’s when I found Jason having an argument with him.   
Mike Weld: Your brother? Why was he having an argument with him?  
Arthur Kingsmen: I don’t know, but it’s the fact that it makes him a suspect in this case! If he was the one who murdered him-  
Cera Minnie: Arthur, calm down. We’ll talk to him nicely and find out the truth. Just don’t go haywire in here.

Cera Minnie: Jason, can you explain to us why you were having an argument with Julius Bush?  
Jason Kingsmen: I’m sorry, who?   
Mike Weld: This man, he was the one who was murdered at the fountain hours ago.   
Jason Kingsmen: He’s the one who died!? Look, Julius was the one who started it in the first place.  
Mike Weld: How so?  
Jason Kingsmen: He kept spying on me at that game store whenever I’m looking at some games. He thought that I was trying to steal one because of how I dress and act. I mean come on, is the rock music not enough for me to look like a criminal? So I confronted him with his spying and he accused me of stealing something, which I didn’t! The guy was crazy!  
Cera Minnie: Well that’s hard to bel- Wait, is that hair spray?  
Jason Kingsmen: Oh umm, I kinda used some back at the house to make my hair a bit nice today. I wasn’t planning on it to be strong.  
Mike Weld: Duly noted. But just for your brother, let’s make sure that you weren’t the one to kill him.

At the lab.  
Samantha Romez: It’s been sometime since I’ve gotten something from you two.  
Mike Weld: At least you took a nice break with Mystery.  
Samantha Romez: You got that right, he was a fast dog to catch up with even when he’s a giant fox who can outrun a racecar. But not to waste anymore of your time, I analyzed the sample from the red sauce from the burrito in the bag. It turns out that it’s hot sauce with some special ingredient that isn’t supposed to be there.  
Cera Minnie: What would that be?  
Samantha Romenz: It’s possible that it might have been spiked since I found substances of omeprazole. It’s a medication that helps with gastrointestinal reflux disease. Too much of this stuff can make people stay in the toilet for hours.   
Mike Weld: Wait a minute, those people complained about their digestive issues when they were after Nico Ellson. Was he lying to us when he said that he wasn’t poisoning his customers?  
Samantha Romenz: That’s not all I found. There were fingerprints on the outside of the bag which belonged to the victim. My guess was that he could have known about the spiked hot sauce.  
Cera Minnie: Or spiked them himself, we should talk to Nico about this.

Nico Ellson: Detectives, did you find out about my food?  
Cera Minnie: We were going to ask you the same thing. It turns out that your hot sauce has been spiked with a medication known as omeprazole. A side effect would have been diarrhea.   
Nico Ellson: What!? Are you saying that someone is sabotaging my food!?  
Mike Weld: More like you are, Julius was investigating this issue and we think that he knew it was you who did it.  
Nico Ellson: But I told him it wasn’t me! He couldn’t understand! (Silence)  
Mike Weld: Sounds like you too were having issues with him.  
Cera Minnie: And sounds like you knew about this from before.  
Nico Ellson: Yes, Julius was the first one to have this problem. He thought that I was making him sick.   
Mike Weld: What exactly was he going to do with that burrito?  
Nico Ellson: He was going to send it to some lab and find out what was wrong with it. But you have to understand. If he accused me of making him sick, my restaurant could’ve been shut down and leave me on the streets.  
Cera Minnie: A perfect motive to kill someone.  
Nico Ellson: I would never kill him, he was my friend.

At the HQ.  
Cera Minnie: Well things are beginning to turn for our victim. It turns out that he’s ticked a few people off. First he spied on Arthur’s brother Jason and accused him of stealing games just because of how he looks. Then there’s Nico Ellson who’s afraid that his friend is going to shut down his restaurant for spiking omeprazole in his food.   
Mike Weld: But Roxy Odom on the other hand was dating our victim.   
Cera Minnie: More like him having an affair with her since his wife is away on vacation. I’m not sure what to tell her at this point.   
Mike Weld: We should first tell them who the killer is. So let’s head back to the rooftop to find more clues. 

At the rooftop, Cera and Mike find a broken security camera and an empty smoothie cup.   
Cera Minnie: Okay, I got this smoothie cup. It looks like someone dropped it here. Knowing that the killer drinks smoothies, it has to be theirs. There’s some saliva at the edge here, taking a sample should help us find our killer.  
Mike Weld: While you got that, I’m going to fix this broken camera. It must have recorded the killer.   
Cera Minnie: Then let’s do this quickly before the killer gets away.

Cera collects saliva off of the smoothie cup.  
Cera Minnie: Nice, Samantha is going to love this. I’m gonna send this to her.

She sends the saliva to Samantha while Mike fixes the security camera.  
Mike Weld: Now that this is fixed Arthur is going to tell me much about the killer. Hopefully it’ll show us a full view of them.

He sends the security camera to Arthur as they return to the lab.  
Cera Minnie: Okay Samantha, what do you have for me?  
Samantha Romenz: Not that much, the DNA on the saliva wasn’t good enough for a full match, but enough to tell you that whoever drank this smoothie, they have blue eyes.  
Cera Minnie: So we are looking for a blue eye killer, thank you. This should help us out.

Mike Weld: Please tell me that you got the killer on the camera.  
Arthur Kingsmen: I wish, but the camera was badly damaged. The only thing I could see was the victim himself being pushed to his death. Let me tell you it was a fight.   
Mike Weld: So we got nothing?  
Arthur Kingsmen: Not exactly. On the left corner of the screen, I caught a glimpse of the killer’s shadow on the ground and used my calculations for the height of the shadow. I estimated that your killer is 5,7 tall.   
Mike Weld: Sweet, that should be enough to put them behind bars for good.  
Arthur Kingsmen: I just hope it’s not Jason, he’s my brother.

Cera Minnie: Sweet! We have enough evidence to find our killer.  
Mike Weld: Oh this is going to be awesome. Time to see the look on their faces when we put the cuffs on them.

Arrest the killer:  
Tracy Potts: Drinks smoothies, uses hairspray, listens to rock music, 5,7 tall, and green eyes.  
Lila Dean: Drinks smoothies, listens to rock music, 5,7 tall, and blue eyes  
Jason Kingsmen: Drinks smoothies, uses hairspray, listens to rock music, 5,5 tall, and blue eyes  
Roxy Odom: Drinks smoothies, uses hairspray, listens to rock music, 5,7 tall, and blue eyes.  
Nico Ellson: uses hairspray, 5,7 tall, brown eyes

They bring the killer to the interrogation room.  
Cera Minnie: Roxy Odom, you’re under arrest for the murder of Julius Bush.  
Roxy Odom: What!? That’s impossible, I loved him!  
Mike Weld: That’s not what the evidence says. You spilled your smoothie on him before pushing him to his death. We found your empty cup on the rooftop with your saliva.  
Roxy Odom: So? Everyone drinks smoothies. Plus, Julius takes me on the rooftops for our dates.  
Cera Minnie: What about your rock music? Did you lose your MP3 Player? We found it in the security room were you trashed the place and tried to erase the footage of the murder.  
Roxy Odom: I would never break and wreck a place, that’s not my style.  
Mike Weld: Then what is? You’re hairspray that you have right now? There were traces of it on the taser he tried to pull out on you. And I thought he was a gentle person for you.  
Roxy Odom: He was never gentle nor respectful! (Silence)  
Cera Minnie: Then it’s time to confess. Why did you kill him?  
Roxy Odom: I didn’t mean to kill him, it was an accident.   
Mike Weld: An accident?   
Roxy Odom: Yes, I lost my temper on him when he wouldn’t admit that he was the one who gave me HIV.  
Cera Minnie: Yikes! How much were you two fooling around?  
Roxy Odom: We’ve been dating for months so a lot. But I was never planning to have HIV and he wasn’t careful with those condoms. So I called him to the rooftop to discuss the issue and he acts like he never cared about it one bit. As if it wasn’t his problem from the start! And so I lashed out and attacked him, but pushing him through that glass ceiling was never the plan!   
Mike Weld: Hopefully the judge will see it that way, you’re going to court Roxy Odom.

Judge Emily: Roxy Odom, you are here by court for the murder of Julius Bush. How do you plead?  
Roxy Odom: Guilty, your honor. I accidently killed a man who gave me HIV.  
Judge Emily: I know that’s terrifying to hear that. Believe me, I have men who tried to get me to have sex. Luckily my parents taught me well. But a man was murdered because you lost your temper on him. For that I’m going to sentence you six years in prison.  
Roxy Odom: Can I bring some crystals and candles for some meditation?

At the HQ.  
Cera Minnie: A job well done for the both of us.  
Mike Weld: Of course, nothing could have stopped us from catching Roxy Odom.  
Cera Minnie: I kinda feel bad for her. Getting HIV and the person who gave her that didn’t care nor sympathize at all. You better care about me when I get HIV.  
Mike Weld: I’ll make sure not to get you HIV in the first place. For now, let’s celebrate for our second case solved.


	4. Additional Investigation 3 of 6: Fires and Spirits

Lewis Pepper: I want to say great job on catching Julius Bush’s killer and putting her behind bars.  
Cera Minnie: Just a normal day sir, although I’m guessing the day isn’t over yet.  
Lewis Pepper: Well not for me and Vivi. We still have to find out who the members of the cult known as the Spirit Callers are. We know that they wear brown robes and hide their faces in public. If we are lucky enough, we should be able to find one easily.   
Mike Weld: Well if you are going to find these cult members, what should we do?  
Vivi Yukino: And that’s why I’m here. Nico Ellson just called the HQ to tell us about his food sabotage. He needs your help to find out how and why omeprazole got into his hot sauce.  
Cera Minnie: Then we are on the case, we’ll go meet up with him at his restaurant.  
Lewis Pepper: Then we should head to the mall to see if we can find anything unusual. 

Cera and Mike talk to Nico Ellson.  
Nico Ellson: Oh thank God you’re here, this situation is getting out of hand! Now the health inspectors and the whole law are on me, thinking that I poisoned my customers. I knew this would have been the end of my career.  
Cera Minnie: Maybe not, we just need to find a reason why omeprazole got into your hot sauce. Do you know where the packages of hot sauce came from?  
Nico Ellson: Well I have mine delivered online, every month. I usually sign it off and then bring it into the files in the security room to keep records. If you find that file, you can prove to me that I’m innocent.  
Mike Weld: Then we’ll find that file and get to the truth. Let’s go.

At the security office, they find a stack of files on the ground.  
Mike Weld: Wow, whoever made this mess really wants us to work hard.  
Cera Minnie: Cheer up Mike, we can be lucky to find this file for Nico Ellson. Let’s get searching.

Cera and Mike find a file marked Locos Tacos’s hot sauce delivery.   
Cera Minnie: This must be it! This whole file should have all the deliveries made for the whole month.  
Mike Weld: I have an idea. Let’s give it to Laurel and let her find what’s on that file.  
Cera Minnie: Fine by me, she’ll have a good time with it. 

At Laurel’s office.   
Laurel Inti: Back again? You really like my style of work.  
Mike Weld: We just seem fascinated at what you do for a living.  
Laurel Inti: Oh please, this is just a part of my life. But I do have some great news. I checked out the file you gave to me and I single handedly solved the case.  
Cera Minnie: Already? How did you find out?   
Laurel Inti: Easy, I called the company that delivers the hot sauce to Nico’s restaurant and got some good information about an incident at a factory in Spain where some pranksters stole and dumped five gallons of omeprazole into the mixing batch. My guess is that they kept it silent so they wouldn’t have to be sued. There’s been complaints about their hot sauce making them have diarrhea around the world.  
Mike Weld: It looks like they still are. But this also means that Nico isn’t the one to blame for the hot sauce. We should tell him the good news.  
Laurel Inti: By the way, tell Vivi to meet me here. I got some info about those nuclear weapons that our dead FBI investigator was handling.   
Cera Minnie: Sure we can do that later after we talk to Nico.

Mike Weld: Nico, you can stop worrying. We know that you aren’t responsible for omeprazole in the hot sauces.  
Nico Ellson: Really!? This is great! That means my business isn’t being shut down! So what really happened?  
Cera Minnie: Just some prankers spiking the pills in the whole batch of hot sauce before it was delivered around the world. WHO is making sure that all of those hot sauces needs to be contained before anything else happens.  
Nico Ellson: Wow, that’s cold hearted. But thank you for helping me out, as a sign of appreciation I grant you to a free meal of your choice. It’s on me.  
Cera Minnie: I could go for a taco. What about you Mike.  
Mike Weld: Well, I won’t turn down on free food. No hot sauce this time.

At the mall.  
Lewis Pepper: I still don’t see anything suspicious around her Vivi.   
Vivi Yukino: Me neither, we’ve been here for almost two hours. I’m not even sure if these cult members are wearing robes today.  
Lewis Pepper: How about we check by the fountain and see what we can find?  
Vivi Yukino: Lead the way.

At the fountain, Lewis and Vivi find a letter.  
Vivi Yukino: Hey, I found this strange letter in cut out magazines.  
Lewis Pepper: Is it a death threat?  
Vivi Yukino: No, more like begging. It reads: “Please come back, the spirits will miss you.”  
Lewis Pepper: So this note must be from a member of the cult and to someone who had left the cult.   
Vivi Yukino: It could be for Abby Croft from our previous case, but we need to make sure. Let’s dust for fingerprints.

Vivi and Lewis dust the letter.  
Vivi: We should let Arthur examine the prints and see who they belong to.

At the lab.   
Mystery Yukino: What have you guys done?  
Vivi Yukino: All we did was send a bunch of prints to Arthur. Is everything alright?  
Mystery Yukino: No, Arthur is in the interrogation room screaming his lungs out. He’s furious and stressed out.  
Lewis Pepper: What, why? He couldn’t find out who they belonged to?  
Mystery Yukino: Opposite of that. The fingerprints he found belong to one of your suspects, Jason Kingsmen.  
Vivi Yukino: Jason!? Arthur’s younger brother!? That doesn’t make sense, why does he have the letter?  
Lewis Pepper: More importantly is that he’s in the cult or had quitted earlier. We need to bring him in for talking.  
Arthur Kingsmen: Oh I don’t think so! I like to talk to him right now!  
Mystery Yukino: Arthur, you are not in a good state to do that.  
Arthur Kingsmen: He’s my brother, Mystery! I have to know the truth!  
Mystery Yukino: (sighs.) Fine, but I’m going to stay with you in case you start to act insane. Luckily Jason knows my true self from before. You guys bring him in while I calm Arthur down.

Jason Kingsmen: Arthur? Mystery? What’s going on, they said it was important.  
Arthur Kingsmen: It is important. We know that you were in a cult called the Spirit Callers. There was a letter with your fingerprints on it.   
Jason Kingsmen: (Silence.) I knew I should have taken the letter with me. Alright, I used to join the cult.   
Arthur Kingsmen: But why would you join a cult that involves calling from the outside world?  
Jason Kingsmen: That’s why I joined in the first place. I wanted to talk to the spirits who we can connect to from different worlds. Do you know how awesome it would have been to talk to our ancestors and famous people who died tragically?   
Mystery Yukino: Jason, that cult is dangerous and not just because I’m a wise kitsune. You need to get out of that cult.  
Jason Kingsmen: But I already quitted two months ago. I didn’t get to see any spirits and I thought it was bogus. Of course losing my motivation to go out late at night and speak in some strange language is a reason too.   
Mystery Yukino: So that letter was meant for you. I suggest you stay with us until this cult is dealt with.  
Jason Kingsmen: Oh come on, I know it’s a cult, but they are not dangerous. I’ve seen it myself.  
Arthur Kingsmen: We are not going to argue about this. You’ve been a suspect and now your part of something that we are investigating. You are going to stay with me and uncle before anything bad happens to you.  
Jason Kingsmen: If you say so, but fair warning you won’t find any more members. They blend in with the crowd very well. 

Arthur Kingsmen: I still can’t believe that my own brother used to be in a cult.  
Mystery Yukino: I know it’s hard, but you need to be strong. We need you.   
Arthur Kingsmen: I know you do. I’m still feeling afraid that he might join back later just to spite us.  
Mystery Yukino: Well he should be scared of the big bad kitsune if he does. Plus, I’ll love to be your therapist if needed.  
Arthur Kingsmen: Absolutely, you’re the best therapist I’ve ever known.  
Vivi Yukino: Well glad to hear that but we still need to find out what this cult does more. We just need a new lead.  
Lewis Pepper: And I found one. One of our suspects, Tracey Potts, wants to help. She’s gotten some info on the case.  
Vivi Yukino: Why would a security guard be interested in this cult? But if she has something good, it’s important that we should talk to her.

Tracey Potts: Ah, glad you could make it. It’s good to have some help with taking down this cult.  
Lewis Pepper: We just want to know why you’re interested in this cult.  
Tracey Potts: If you haven’t known, there’s been some rumors about them killing innocent people for sacrifices.  
Vivi Yukino: Really? What proof do you have?   
Tracey Potts: Not much except that I got a list of people who went missing for a whole year. Unfortunately I lost my notebook somewhere. I must have dropped it on the rooftop when I was paying my respects for Julius.  
Vivi Yukino: Really, I thought you hated him and wished him dead?  
Tracey Potts: I did, but I still have to love my enemies, no matter what. Julius was one of them who needed to be rested in peace.   
Lewis Pepper: Right. Anyway, let’s go to the rooftop to find that notebook.

On the rooftop, they find a torn notebook.  
Vivi Yukino: Oh dear, this notebook must have been torn by those seagulls. How are we going to find out who’s gone missing?  
Lewis Pepper: Easy, some tape should do the trick. Let’s just fix this back together.

They fix the broken notebook.  
Vivi Yukino: Amazing, now that this is fixed, Mystery can help with finding who these missing people are. 

At the library.  
Vivi Yukino: Hey Mystery, how’s Arthur doing?  
Mystery Yukino: Still holding on, he’s not in a good mood to talk still. Right now, I’m trying to sooth him with my tails, most likely to distract him from his hard working mind.  
Lewis Pepper: I don’t know what I’ll do if one of my little sisters were in something dangerous. Did you find anything from Tracey’s journal?  
Mystery Yukino: In fact, I did. Almost thirty people went missing from this district in over a year. I checked newspapers, articles, and anything I can read about these people.  
Vivi Yukino: If Tracey was right, then that means people are being violently murdered by this cult. We need to find out where their hideout and who is leading the cult are at.  
Mystery Yukino: I would agree too, but Jason won’t know much about the cult. How about that other member Abby Croft?  
Vivi Yukino: Good thinking. She could help us out.

Abby Croft: Miss Yukino, what brings you here?  
Vivi Yukino: We need your help about this cult. They’ve been kidnapping people and murdering them for over a year.  
Abby Croft: What!? That can’t be! I’ve been in that cult for years and nothing like that ever happens. Of course, maybe they changed their plans after I quitted, a year ago.  
Vivi Yukino: What about the leader and the location? What can you tell me about them?  
Abby Croft: Oh the location is very hard. They go to random places to do their rituals and as for the leader, I don’t know his real name. But he does go by The Spirit Awakener. He’s the one who starts the chanting.   
Vivi Yukino: Thank you, you’ve been a real help.  
Abby Croft: I wish I could do more, but the spirits won’t tell me anything else.

At the HQ.  
Vivi Yukino: This cult is getting more insane. First Jason Kingsmen used to be in the cult and quitted just like Abby Croft and now they’re the reason why those people are missing? I’m not sure if we can wait this long.   
Lewis Pepper: Me neither, but of course we need to find their next location and when they’ll be at.   
Laurel Inti: Ah, Vivi there you are. I’ve been trying to look everywhere for you.  
Vivi Yukino: Laurel, you said this was about those nuclear weapons from the FBI, right?  
Laurel Init: Yeah, I got a hit off of it. Meet me at my office.

At Laurel’s office.  
Vivi Yukino: What did you find about nuclear weapons?  
Laurel Inti: It turns out that there’s been some sort of deal since months ago between some spies from a different country and an American living here. I took the time to do the research off of that night and found a security footage about that deal. It seems like they were handing out a file with something labeled confidential.   
Vivi Yukino: Did you get a good look at those people?   
Laurel Inti: Sort of. I couldn’t identify the men who gave the dealer the files, but the other guy is someone you've already met before. Does the name Riley Reynolds ring any bells?  
Vivi Yukino: You mean the rich guy who I met from our last case!? He’s the one with the files of the nuclear weapons!?  
Laurel Inti: Oh yeah. His motive for having those files is a mystery. But if I were you, interrogating him wouldn’t make a difference on finding that file.  
Vivi Yukino: So we need to wait it out? Wait a minute, Lewis has an invitation to his yacht next week. Maybe the files will be in there.  
Laurel Inti: Then that’s the plan. Lewis will aboard that yacht and find out where he put the files from.  
Vivi Yukino: I got to talk to him about this.

At the HQ.  
Vivi Yukino: Ok Lewis, it turns out that Riley Reynold has some plans on some nuclear weapons and you need to get on that yacht next week and find them before he uses them.  
Lewis Pepper: Shouldn’t be a problem, I know what to look for. The question is, can I do it without being caught?  
Vivi Yukino: You’re a ghost Lewis, you can sneak anywhere and get the stuff. For now, we just need to put aside the cult case and focus on this one. We got some bombs to stop.


End file.
